Cherenzia v. Lynch

OPINION

FLANDERS, Justice.

This is a fish story of a legal sort. A state statute bars any person from using a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (SCUBA) to harvest shellfish at four named coastal ponds in the state. G.L. 1956 § 20-6-30, as enacted by P.L.2001, ch. 412, § 1. Dangling their constitutionally protected “rights of fishery, and the privileges of the shore,” R.I. Const., art. 1, sec. 17, before a Superior Court motion justice, the named plaintiffs — all of whom were commercial fishermen (hereinafter, the fishermen) — tried to hook this anti-SCUBA statute on various state…